In a vibratory MEMS gyroscope, a mass is driven to resonate, e.g., in a translational, rotational, flexural, or bulk acoustic mode, by a set of drive electrodes, and motion is detected through a set of sense electrodes. Gyroscope errors and performance is determined, in part, by the matching and optimum alignment of the drive and sense electrodes with respect to the mode shape of operation. Photo mask misalignment is one source of these errors if more than one photo mask is used to define the critical layers of the MEMS gyroscope structures.